I came across a scenario where I wanted to highlight a whole row if one cell in that row had a value. It’s quite easy once you know how. Here’s how I did it.

This example is in Google Sheets, but Excel should work the same way.

Open Conditional Formatting under Format > Conditional Formatting

Click to add a new rule

Select your range

Choose your colors

In Format Cells If, use Custom Formula

=NOT( ISBLANK($K3) )

What this formula is doing. Well, ISBLANK and NOT are self-explanatory. We’re looking to for any value in the field $K3. Notice the $ before K, this is the key. It’s saying only the K column, and with no $ before the cell number, it’s dynamic for all of the rows in your range. So any row (3, 4, 5, etc), if the K column for that particular row has a value in it, this conditional formatting is going to apply.

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TJ Nevis

Expert at knowing a little bit about everything - or so I like to think. Husband, business owner, web developer, car enthusiast, animal lover, tinkerer. I run a web development/technology company, NevisTechnology.com where I'm living my dream. Need hosting services, a website, blog, Blogger to WordPress conversion or an e-commerce store?Let's talk!